Fuse mechanism for projectiles



1934- A. VARAUD FUSE MECHANISM FOR PROJECTILES Filed April 20, 1933 D STATES 1,970,206 FUSE MECHANISM FOR PROJECTILES Andre Varaud, Geneva, Switzerland Application April 20, 1933, Serial No. 667,118 In Switzerland April 30, 1932 1 Claim. (Cl. 102-36) The present invention relates to fuses for artilmechanism. As shown, the axle 8 of the escapelery projectiles of the type in which the motive ment wheel '7 is perpendicular to the axle 9 of power operating the percussor release mechanism the balance arm 10. V is effected by centrifugal force produced by the With this construction, each rest is determined rotation of the projectile. by contact of the point of a tooth of the escapeso It is known that in such fuses, the motive power ment wheel '7 with a member integral with the is an essentially variable quantity, as the cenaxle9 of the balance arm 10. trifugal force varies with the speed of rotation Such a regulator device possesses the peculiof the projectile and with the distance of the arity of not being affected by the variations of weights from the center. In the known conthe motive power generated by centrifugal force, 5 structions the weights operating the driving memthe indispensable iso-chronism of the oscillations ber of the release mechanism of the percussor are of the balance arm for effecting a sufficiently arranged on toothed sectors which they set in exact regulation of the working of the fuse mechmotion by moving away from the axis of the fuse anism being obtained by the fact that the balance.

5 in course of working. The strain which they arm has oscillations of great amplitude. exert on the toothed sector, that is to say on the This type of regulator has long ago been abanmechanism altogether, is therefore considerably doned in clock-making, because it wears out too greater at the end of the course of the said weights quickly and only works for a short time in good than at the commencement. condition. This feature, however, is not objec- It has been attempted to compensate these tionable in the case of a fuse intended to work differences by means of regulator mechanism, but only for a few seconds during which such reguthe latter has proved insufficient and it has been lator integrally preserves all its qualities. attempted to make up for this insufficiency by What I claim as my invention and desire to reducing the length of the path of the centrifugal secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:- weights, for instance by inserting demultiplica- In fuse mechanism for projectiles of the chartion gearing between the toothed sector and the acter described a cylindrical casing, two cenmembers driven thereby. This latter means has trifugally operatedslidable members mounted in also proved precarious in view of the principle of said casing movable outwardly from the axis of the regulator mechanism employed in fuses of the said casing, a shaft axially mounted in said cas- 30 described type. ing, means whereby the movement of said slid- 35 The primary object of the present invention is able members imparts rotary movement to said to remedy these defects by combining with the shaft, abalance arm, an axle for said arm mountcentrifugal sector or sectors a regulator device ed axially in said casing, regulator mechanism with repose escapement having the axis of the in said casing, an escapement wheel appertainbalance arm and of the escapement wheel pering to said regulator mechanism, an axle for said pendicular to each other and in which each rest is wheel, this axle being situated at a right angle to determined by the contact of the point of a tooth Said axle for said balance, and means transof the escapement wh el with a ir u r rin mitting the force from said shaft to said escapeintegral with the axle of the balance arm. ment mechanism,

The single figure of the drawing is a partial ANDRE VARAUD 5 section in elevation of a fragment of a fuse, the section being taken through the longitudinal axis thereof.

As clearly shown in the drawing, the cylindri- 5 cal case 1 of the fuse mechanism contains in its interior at 2 and 3 two centrifugal members composed of cylindrical pistons movable outwardly from the center. By means of racks 3a these members transmit the motive powerproduced by 50 the action of centrifugal force thereon to the c 5 pinion 4 of the central shaft 5. From pinion 4 the force is transmitted through the toothed wheel 6 and a satellite pinion of the latter, not shown in the drawing as it is situated behind this 55 wheel, to the escapement at the upper part of the iJNiT ATENT OFFICE 

